Project Details
Projekt
Central coordination
Applicants
Dr. Anne Ebeling; Professor Dr. Nico Eisenhauer; Professor Dr. Gerd Gleixner; Privatdozentin Dr. Christiane Roscher; Professorin Dr. Alexandra Weigelt
Subject Area
Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
Term
since 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 422440326
Currently, the Jena Experiment has >70 members, produced >330 peer-reviewed publications, and is one of the longest-running biodiversity experiments in the world. Therefore, the Jena Experiment stands out as one of the global cornerstones in functional biodiversity research. Experience from the Jena Experiment as well as other large integrated projects shows that they can only be successful if central tasks and responsibilities are taken over by a dedicated project. The central subproject can also support coordination of the whole research consortium, specifically in terms of developing common designs, field management, protocols, administration of sampling campaigns, and data curation. These activities are indispensable for the provision of infrastructure for everyone working in long-term experiments. The Central Coordination SPZ1 project has two main coordination objectives, (Objective 1) management of the research group and the experimental site (WP1 and WP2), and (Objective 2) collection and provision of central long-term data (WP3 and WP4). Briefly, the management of the research site covers the maintenance of the field site and the experimental plots, the establishment and maintenance of two new experiments (ResCUE Experiment and DrY Experiment), coordination of the Research Unit’s activities, and administration. This involves the continuation of long-term data collection of abiotic properties, soil characteristics, and plant communities in the Main Experiment. In addition, SPZ1 has the scientific objective (Objective 3) to continue leading synthesis work within the Jena Experiment by focusing on the role of plant diversity for a stable biomass production over time and under extreme climatic conditions by considering plant trait diversity and above-belowground biomass allocation (Main Experiment, Dominance Experiment, Trait-based Experiment, ΔBEF Experiment; WP5), analyzing the plant species and community responses to plant diversity and drought intensity in the DrY Experiment (WP6), as well as to hot drought in the ResCUE Experiment (WP7). Thus, measurements and analyses performed in this subproject will be the prerequisite for determining the conditions that cause stress in plant and soil communities, and exploring plant diversity-mediated resistance and recovery to extreme climate events, providing relevant data to all subprojects, and leading cutting-edge syntheses.
DFG Programme
Research Units
International Connection
Switzerland
Cooperation Partner
Professor Dr. Bernhard Schmid
